A Dish for a Wizard
by Everlude
Summary: When Chase is told to make a dish that requires a rare ingredient for the island's resident wizard he runs into a little more trouble than he bargained for thanks to a girl named Maya. Maybe he should have just left her in the swamp where he found her...


Alright, this is my secret santa gift for the writer's block forum run by Naty17.

My secret santa: floridapanther28 *I hope you like it!*

Summary: When Chase is told to make a dish that requires a rare ingredient for the island's resident wizard he runs into a little more trouble than he bargained for thanks to a girl named Maya. Maybe he should have just left her in the swamp where he found her.

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><p><strong>A Dish for a Wizard<strong>

Chase muttered to himself as he wandered through the dense foliage that was Fugue Forest. Why did he have to make a dish where one of the ingredients was so rare it could only be found deep in this stupid forest after hours and hours of searching? Luke was the one who was familiar with the forest, not him, and he'd already passed the place where Luke usually reached long ago. If his client wasn't that wizard who would turn him into something unpleasant if he didn't make him the dish, Chase would have refused to even make the dish in the first place.

Crawling under a log and over a couple of boulders, Chase noticed a soft sound to his right. Following the sound for a minute or two, he came across a muddy stream. There was a river not too far from the entrance to the forest, so Chase figured this stream was a branch off from the river, but where did it lead? Forgetting all about the Fugue Mushroom he was supposed to be finding, Chase started to follow the stream out of curiosity.

Nearly half an hour later Chase reached a place where the stream fed into a giant swamp marsh. Looking around, Chase felt confused. He'd never known there was a swamp in the middle of the forest, but then again nobody had ever ventured this far into the forest as far as he knew, so maybe he was the first one to ever find this place. Remembering that he had a mushroom to find, Chase started looking around. Mushrooms loved to grow in damp places, and what place could be more damp than a marsh?

As he was looking around, being careful to avoid places where the ground was too soggy, Chase stumbled upon a wooden bridge. What was a wooden bridge doing in the middle of a swamp? Obviously he wasn't the first one to find this place if the bridge was here, but who would be all the way out here in the swamp enough to bother building a bridge, and where did said bridge even lead to? Deciding it couldn't hurt, Chase started walking along the bridge which led him deeper into the swamp where a strange fog made it hard to see.

Pressing on by telling himself that he'd find that stupid mushroom on the other end of the bridge, Chase kept going forward. Eventually the fog began to lift as Chase reached the end of the bridge. Stopping at the end of the bridge, Chase stared at was in front of him in amazement. There was a house in the middle of the swamp! As he slowly looked around taking it all in, Chase noticed something else that made him smirk triumphantly. There was that stupid sparkling mushroom sitting under the windowsill of the house. Walking over, Chase plucked the mushroom from the ground and placed it in the basket he'd brought with him.

"Whatcha doin'?"

"Ah!" Stumbling backwards, Chase tripped over a rock and fell to the ground with a flop. Groaning, he looked up at the window where the voice had come from, feeling irritated. Looking down at him from at the window was a girl with short caramel colored hair who was caught with a fit of giggles from his fall. Glaring, Chase stood up and brushed himself off. First it was that stupid wizard, then a stupid mushroom, and now a stupid girl. Could this day get anymore stupid?

"Would you knock it off already?" Chase complained as the girl continued to giggle.

"Sorry, you just looked so funny." The girl said as she pulled herself back together. "I've never seen anybody out here before besides the witch. My name's Maya. Who're you?" Leaning on the windowsill she looked at Chase expectantly.

"I'm Chase." He replied after a minute. This girl's bubbly nature was getting kind of annoying and he'd just met her. It was time to go. "Have fun in your weird house, I'm leaving now." Chase said as he turned to go.

"Wait!" Maya cried out after him. Stopping, Chase glanced over his shoulder and raised an eyebrow at her. What could she possibly want now? "Would you take me with you? I've never been outside of the swamp because of the witch, but she's not here right now so I could sneak out with you." Chase just stared at the girl dumbfounded. Had she really never left the swamp in her life? And he thought his life was bad. Debating internally with himself, Chase finally gave in and nodded his head. The girl began to squeal in delight, but Chase silenced her as he held up his hand.

"You can come with me on one condition: you don't annoy me." Maya's eyes lit up, and she nodded quickly in agreement. She'd do anything to get out of the swamp. "What are you waiting for then?" Chase said, as he started walking away again. He needed to get back and make the wizard his dish before he grew tired of waiting and decided to turn Chase into a frog or something worse.

"Wait!" Maya called again. Chase groaned. What now? "The witch always magically locks the front door, and I can't climb out the window by myself." Maya explained as Chase turned back again. Chase knew she was right as the windowsill stood nearly two of him tall. Sighing, and mentally telling himself he should just leave the girl, Chase walked back to the wall under the window.

"Look, if I stand under the window like this you can climb onto my shoulders and jump down from there okay?" After seeing Maya nod affirmatively, Chase braced his arms and head against the wall. It was a moment before he felt a shoe on first one shoulder and then the other. Luckily Maya wasn't very heavy. Another few moments as he felt her adjusting herself, and the weight was gone as he heard her hit the ground behind him. "Can we go now?" Chase asked turning around. Nodding Maya skipped after him as Chase started back across the bridge.

When they were nearly out of the forest they ran into a boy with a flaming bandana over his dark blue hair chopping away at a tree. "Hey Chase, who's your friend?" The boy called when he noticed them.

"Hey Luke, this is Maya. I found her farther in the forest in a swamp." Chase said nonchalantly. Dealing with Luke right now was not high on his list of things he wanted to do, but apparently Maya had other ideas as she walked up to Luke and invited him to come with them.

"Sure thing!" Luke said excitedly before pausing for a moment. "Uh…where are we going?" Chase smacked his face with the palm of his hand and groaned. Was the Harvest Goddess out to get him or something? Even as he thought this, Maya rounded on him and asked the exact same question as Luke. Slowly pulling his hand down his face, Chase looked at the two people in front of him.

"Look here, I'm going to go cook the Fugue Mushroom dish the wizard asked for and deliver it to him before he decides to turn me into a toad. Since you two are friends now, go find something to do." Luke and Maya looked at each other for a moment before grinning and each grabbing one of Chase's arms, simultaneously shouting "To the kitchen!" Before Chase could register what had even happened the two of them had dragged him almost all the way to his house with Luke leading the way since Maya had no idea where to go. They finally let him go at the front door. Muttering under his breath, Chase opened the door and the three of them went inside where Chase proceeded to get everything ready to make the wizard his dish while Luke and Maya wandered around touching everything.

A shout from Maya nearly made Chase cut his finger, and quickly turning around, knife still in hand he asked what was wrong. "There's something weird falling from the sky!" Maya exclaimed. Luke joined her by the window and started laughing.

"Awesomeness! It's the first snow of the year!" He shouted running for the front door, and throwing it open to go outside and run in the quickly accumulating snow. Chase could only gape. He'd nearly injured himself because Maya didn't know what snow was? Muttering to himself again which was quickly becoming a habit of his, Chase went back to cooking, but not before telling Maya to shut the door Luke had idiotically left open. He didn't get an answer though, and after a glance over his shoulder he saw why –Maya had joined Luke running around outside. Annoyed, Chase shut the door and went back to cooking, again.

Just as Chase was pulling the dish he'd been making out of the oven, the front door slammed open, accompanied by a cold blast of air and two loud, obnoxious voices. "Hmm? Something smells awesome!" Luke declared as he slammed the door behind him. Spotting the dish in Chase's hand Luke grinned. "Hey, can I have some of that Chase? It looks as awesome as it smells!"

"No!" Chase nearly yelled. If anything happened to this dish the wizard would personally end his life as he knew it. "This dish is for the wizard, and if I don't get it to him soon I'll probably be turned into a frog." Setting down the dish momentarily, Chase glared at the two troublemakers before going to his room to grab his coat and gloves. When he came back out he just about died. Luke and Maya were eating the dish! He'd been gone less than a minute for Pete's sake!

"I thought I told you this dish was for the wizard!" Chase shouted angrily as he rescued what was left of the dish from their hands. The two looked guiltily at each other before apologizing.

"I'm sorry Chase." Maya said sadly as the cook started walking away. "It smelled so warm and yummy though, and we were both really cold from playing outside in the snow. You know, I never saw snow in the swamp –I'd only ever read about it in books. I never realized how cold it was." The sadness in her voice made something inside Chase feel guilty for exploding on the two of them. Sighing and wondering what in the world was wrong with him, Chase apologized and the two grinned at him.

"Um… Chase could we come with you to see the wizard?" Maya asked hesitantly. "Maybe if we explained what happened he wouldn't get mad." Chase doubted this, but anything was better than facing the wizard along so he agreed. Before they left, Chase them borrow his two spare coats and pairs of gloves. Once they were out the door and on their way, Luke couldn't help but throw his fist in the air and shout, "This is going to be so awesome!" Chase could only wish he was as naïve as Luke who obviously didn't understand the threat of being turned into a frog, or maybe he just thought that would be awesome too.

Walking up the steps that led to the wizard's house, Chase wanted nothing more than to turn and run away. Not that it would do much good since the wizard could probably find him no matter where he went. When the trio finally reached the door, Luke raised his fist and banged loudly against the wood surface. The loud noise in the quiet winter air made Chase cringe. The pit in his stomach only grew bigger as he watched the door slowly open and a mysterious sounding voice invited them in. He knew that voice.

"I thought I asked you to bring a dish…not friends," the voice said. As the trio's eyes adjusted to the darker lighting of the house, they saw the wizard in his purple cloak standing behind a table with a crystal ball on it staring at them, eyeing the ruined dish in Chase's hands. Gulping, Chase stepped forward to speak, but Maya and Luke beat him to it.

"It's not Chase's fault Mr. Wizard." Maya pleaded.

"Yeah, Maya and I ate the dish he made for you on accident." Luke said waving his hands around frantically, trying to get the wizard to understand. The silence that hung in the air nearly crushed Chase when it was finally broken by the door slamming open behind them and a scream.

"Where is she Wizard? I know you took her, now give her back!" Turning, the group watched as a woman with silver hair, orange eyes, and a black pointy hat on her head stormed through the door. Maya blanched.

"Uh-oh…" Whirling, the woman stared at Maya for a moment before smirking and rounding on the wizard.

"I knew you stole her! Well, I'm taking her back!"

"I did not…steal her." The wizard replied calmly without even blinking. By now Chase and Luke were just staring on in confusion.

"Hey chase do you have any idea what's going on?" Luke whispered. Chase just shook his head back and forth. Who in the world was this weird woman? He'd never seen her before in his life, but apparently Maya knew her... Wait. Maya had never left the swamp until today, and didn't she mention something about a witch when he met her.

"Maya," Chase whispered warily, "is that the witch you were talking about?"

"Uh-huh."

"No talking from the peanut gallery!" The witch screeched, rounding on the trio. The three of them gulped and took a step back. Even Luke didn't dare make a joke.

"It isn't wise…to turn your back…on me." The wizard said in that even voice of his as he raised an arm and pointed it at the witch. In a sudden burst of bright light that made Maya, Luke, and Chase shield their eyes, there was a loud popping noise followed by a dimming of the light, and a croaking noise. Slowly the trio opened their eyes, and starred. Where the witch had been was now a bright pink frog.

"Did…did you just turn her into…" Chase couldn't even finish his sentence. The wizard really could turn people into frogs!

"That was so awesome!" Luke shouted as he started chasing the frog around the house wanting a closer look at it. While Luke was otherwise occupied the wizard turned back to Chase and Maya.

"Please don't turn Chase into a frog too Wizard!" Maya pleaded. The wizard just looked at her funny.

"Why would I…do that?"

"Because the dish was ruined." Chase said nervously. The wizard just smiled a small smile.

"You can make it again…right?" Blanching for a moment, Chase quickly recovered and nodded.

"Then just make it and bring it again. I don't mind…waiting…a little longer."

Relieved, Chase thanked the wizard and grabbing Maya's hand headed for the door, intent on getting out of there before the wizard changed his mind. At the sound of a crash and Luke shouting that he'd finally caught the frog, Chase booked it out the door, dragging Maya with him. Luke would be on his own to get out of whatever mess he'd made. After running for a while, Chase finally stopped, panting and out of breath.

"Hey Chase," Maya said after she'd gotten her breath back, "can I help you make the dish for the wizard this time?" Looking over at the girl next to him, Chase thought about it. If it wasn't for the wizard's stupid request he'd never have met her in the first place, but since meeting her she hadn't caused him anything but trouble. Seeing those bright blue eyes of hers staring at him though from that cute face framed by twins braids… inwardly groaning and knowing he'd probably end up regretting it, Chase gave in.

"Why not."

Squealing in delight, Maya pulled Chase into an unexpected hug. "Thank you, thank you, thank you! You're the best friend I could have ever asked for." Unsure what to do, Chase finally put his arms around her in a hesitant hug. Maybe meeting Maya wasn't such a bad thing after all he thought as he stood there holding her, watching the snow fall. Besides, girls are supposed to be good at cooking…right?

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><p>I hope everyone enjoyed reading this, and I hope that you'll all leave a review before you go. =)<p>

Merry Christmas floridapanther28!


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